The rapid expansion in the use of the Internet and data-intensive applications such as machine-vision, video conferencing, and real-time image processing have created a need for communication conduits and devices capable of handling large amounts of data at very high speeds. These applications might need data rates with an order of magnitude of a terabyte per second. Traditional wire-based connections, however optimized, have proven physically incapable of supporting such data rates at acceptable power consumption levels and/or without unacceptable constraints on packaging and/or cost. As a result, electrical wiring has become a significant bottleneck in communication between networks, devices and components in devices.